Alison Keogh

Alison Keogh: Alison Keogh’s academic foundation is architecture; she received her degree and masters at Kingston University, London. Formerly an architect, her artistic practice embraces contemplative processes. Having less control and accepting things “just as they are” is an increasingly significant element of her philosophy. While adhering to an underlying structural premise of modernist forms, her work exudes an organic sensibility.

Integrating her actions into direct contact with the materials is a way to realize the purest sense of self, unfiltered by consciousness. The work is a trace of the intensity of the creative act in a specific moment.

Her work has been exhibited internationally as well as nationally in solo and group exhibitions. In 2012 she had an installation at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, and attended an artist residency at Fundacion Valpariso, Spain. This year the University of New Mexico, through the New Mexico Arts, AIPP program, purchased her large work “60,000 Positive Thoughts”. In February she had her inaugural public performance of “Sumi Ink Throw” at the Convention Center in Santa Fe, NM. Her work is represented by William Siegal Gallery, Santa Fe, NM and Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

ARTIST STATEMENT:“My work is a dialogue with the natural world. Collaborating with uncertainty, working with stillness and immediacy, I act with the intuitive processes of my body: breathing, awareness and gestures to reveal the experiences that have settled and compressed with time.“

“Pixels” was founded on elements of the Ink Throw Calligraphy and Graphite Botanical series. The “Pixels” float at the intersection between grid and “picture elements”.

A grid, as an artificial device for organizing material, creates structure, and from it’s repetitive nature generates it’s own rhythm. It is a way to clarify individual elements by separation, while holding them together as a unified whole. Employing a grid has allowed me to recompose my work; this changes the way it’s perceived.

The Ink Throw Calligraphy compositions employed expansive gestures in their execution: full body movements coordinated with my breath. “Pixels” narrowly focuses on small 6cm squares from large paper scrolls of finished works.

I started experimenting with indigo on paper combining it with sumi ink. Sometimes these mediums have been thrown, brushed or poured during the process.

My work is a direct response to my physical environment both in terms of space and place. I moved my studio to a smaller space last year. In part, the new series is a visceral response to this change.